Nikola Jokic does not sound like a man eyeing the exit. League reporting indicates the Denver Nuggets plan to put a four-year supermax extension on the table this summer that would keep the three-time MVP under contract through the 2030–31 season. The proposed deal would sit among the biggest in league history, landing somewhere in the $270 million to $290 million range and averaging about $70 million per year. As Jokic put it after the season, “I still want to be a Nugget forever.”
As reported by the Denver Gazette, Denver is expected to formally offer the extension in early July, tacking four new seasons onto Jokic’s current deal. The final dollar figure will track with salary cap growth; a 10% cap jump would push the total value closer to $290 million under some scenarios. For context on the market’s high end, Boston’s Jayson Tatum set this year’s ceiling with a five-year extension worth roughly $314 million, as reported by ESPN.
How the supermax math works
This kind of mega-deal is tied directly to the cap. Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, players who qualify for the higher max can earn up to 35% of the salary cap in the first year of an eligible extension. The league’s own NBA CBA 101 guide lays out the years-of-service bands and higher-max rules that determine how that percentage is set.
On the numbers side, Spotrac’s projections put a four-year extension for Jokic at roughly $278 million under conservative cap growth assumptions and note that his 2027–28 player option currently sits at about $62.8 million, figures that help explain why timing the extension matters. Spotrac modelled those scenarios.
What it means for Denver’s offseason
Locking in Jokic at supermax money will tighten Denver’s books and make roster building trickier around the margins. Instead of splashy free agent signings, the front office is expected to lean more on trades, expiring contracts and careful tax planning to keep the roster competitive.
During an end-of-season press conference, team president Josh Kroenke emphasized the organization’s responsibility to build around Jokic and made it clear they are not trading their franchise centrepiece, comments chronicled by the Denver Gazette. League coverage and payroll trackers already project Denver near some of the league’s most expensive cap tiers, so sign-and-trades and strategic salary dumps figure to be the most realistic tools to create room, according to reporting from Bleacher Report.
Timeline and what to watch
The earliest Jokic can officially sign an extension is in early July, and the Nuggets are expected to present an offer as soon as that window opens. He still has the option to wait, using his existing player option as leverage to convert future seasons into additional guaranteed money if he chooses.
Jokic declined a three-year extension last summer while publicly reiterating that he wants to remain in Denver, which helps explain why both sides are in active dialogue but not in a full-on rush, according to reporting from Sports Illustrated. For the cap spreadsheets, Spotrac lists Jokic’s 2026–27 salary at about $59 million and his 2027–28 player option at roughly $62.8 million, numbers that feed directly into the extension math and the Nuggets’ timing decisions.
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